Looks very interesting!

There's no such thing as the perfect tagline for a nov--

"Psychic warrior Britt St. Vincent is sucked into a hellish whirlpool of man-hating seductresses and man-eating sharks."
(Recycled Souls, Signet, 1976).

I'm seconding this! Pat Masson is one of the best poets of the modern alliterative revival, and her "Lay of St. Boniface" is just stellar. One of my absolute favorite reads among all modern long alliterative poems.

Yes for three reasons

— it’s recurring
— it never gets anywhere
— it’s largely caused by shock at seeing a line graph of something people have never seen graphed before

Fun data nuggets:

In 1972, seven woman writers published a total of seven SFF novels. (8.8% of the total).

By 1991?

That number had risen to 83 woman writers and 101 novels (33.0%).

Oh, I'll pick it up! I'm now teaching a course on dragons, and I remember reading a few of your articles when studying up on Norse legend.

I just spent the last eight hours non-step reading (and finishing) Gregory Benford's novel TIMESCAPE .... and while I may still be a bit too dazzled to make any permanent judgements, it might just be the best science fiction I've ever read. Up there with THE DISPOSSESSED, at least.

Prestige Fiction Is Dead | Los Angeles Review of Books Evan Brier’s recent book conducts a depressing literary autopsy, complete with case studies.

lareviewofbooks.org/article/nove...

I'm re-upping this article, "Prestige Fiction is Dead," a review of Evan Brier's NOVEL COMPETITION, b/c after two weeks it's still listed as the most popular for its category by @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social .

It's a good read, so come see what all the fuss is about!
(Link in first comment).

Well, that's a good endorsement, if I do say so myself! @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social

Thanks, Sean! And I appreciate it even more that it was read anonymously, haha. I really enjoyed Brier's book, too, so was super glad of the chance to review it.

My first session was aNeil Gaiman roundtable -- standing room only, impressive for 8:30 am! -- and was the most engaging roundtables I've had to pleasure to see, much less participate in.

Panelists had a wide range of opinions on everything from pedagogy to academia. Very productive!
#ICFA47

As soon as I mentioned Judy-Lynn and Lester del Rey, he said it made him think of that presentation. But he couldn't recollect the guy's name. So he looked through his phone ... and showed me MY OWN handout from ICFA two years ago.

Damn near gave me a heart attack, but now I know to consult myself!

Ooo, I just got my first conference horror (funny!) story. After my presentation on how gender changed in Spec Fict., a guy came up to me.

"I hate to do this to you," he said, "but somebody in a conference from many years ago already did your topic!"

Er, WHAT? ... (1/2)

#ICFA47

Checking the weather and crossing my fingers that there's no blizzards delaying our plane tomorrow!
#ICFA47

I appreciate that ! And if you like, I could get you a discounted author's copy, if you're interested.

Some random tags: @sfrareview.bsky.social @iafa.bsky.social @uofgfantasy.bsky.social @britfantasysoc.bsky.social @rhunedhel.bsky.social @mythsoc.bsky.social @mathjones.bsky.social @adambolivar.bsky.social @adamroberts.bsky.social @thaliarchus.bsky.social @graywyvern.bsky.social

My latest piece, "Prestige Fiction is Dead," from @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social, reviewing Evan Brier's excellent book, NOVEL COMPETITION.

This one ends with some reflections on SFF publishing, so worth it whether you're into literary fiction, fantasy, or SF.

"Using AI helps me save time from looking at the website! Of course, it also makes more work for other people as they answer questions I could have answered myself....."

list during the same period; LOCUS only began doing these lists in 1978.

As these figures shows, female authors make the Locus bestseller lists IN EXACT PROPORTION to the number of female-authored books.

Now, there's caveats, of course ... but for those, you'll have to wait for the article!

number of SFF and fantasy novels published by the top 10 major paperback publishers between 1978 and 1991. (Star Trek novels are excluded.)

The *bottom* of the chart shows the total number of male & female authors who made a LOCUS bestseller ...

I'm sure some SFF scholars have heard that "women don't sell" in science fiction, at least in the "olden" days. But was that true?

Well, I think I've found some pretty conclusive evidence that that old trope is pretty much a myth .... mostly.

The following chart shows, at the top, the total ...

Well, crap! You're absolutely right.

Del Rey Books comes around, but it never quite catches up to science fiction, which is also expanding rapidly (although it found itself eclipsed in total *sales* by fantasy).

As a follow-up to my last post: this is my first time creating charts in EXCEL, so here's a lovely little bar graph cuz .... well, cuz now I can't stop!

This one tracks original mass-market paperbacks published from 1972 through 1991. Obviously, genre fantasy explodes after ...

these lines are trending upward by relatively the same rate ... i.e., keeping pace with the general increase in woman-authored titles. 4/4

was simply less welcoming to female authors .... or, which I think is actually the case, prospective women authors were far more DRAWN to the fantasy & Star Trek genres than they were to SF.

Either way, most interestingly, you can tell by the linear trendlines that ALL ... 3/4

But then you see SF is quite far below this average .... and fantasy, when it gets going in 1976-ish, is quite a bit higher. (Due to small sample size for Star Trek fiction, I went with the average rather than year-by-year numbers.)

Couple ways you can parse this. One is SF ... 2/4

A little something I'm working on for @iafa.bsky.social ICFA 2026 .... an analysis of mass-market pb novels (SF, fantasy, & Star Trek) by women for 1972-1991.

The green *General* line is from @tedunderwood.com et al, tracking the "average" number of novels by women over this period. 1/4

Whoa! You know, I don't think I've ever seen a picture of him .... and certainly didn't expect that set of hair!